Stephen C. Van Hedger
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology
Huron University College
C.V.

About Me

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Huron University College, where I direct the Huron Auditory Perception (HAP) Lab. In my research, I use behavioral and neuroscientific (fMRI, EEG, eye tracking) methodologies to understand how individuals are able to learn and remember perceptual patterns in their environments. I have focused on music and speech as model systems for understanding (1) how prior experience shapes perception, (2) the limits of auditory plasticity in adulthood, and (3) how both implicit and explicit learning mechanisms contribute to auditory representations.

Much of my current research is web-based, using JavaScript packages such as jsPsych. To promote transparency and replicability in psychological science, I have made my scripts available to use in your own research. If you have any questions about any of the scripts, feel free to contact me.

"One line" portrait
(credit: Shannon Heald)

Publications

2024

Bongiovanni, N., Chan, T.M.V., Van Hedger, S.C., Findley, C., & Hoeckner, B. (2024). Pitch height and mode have asymmetrical effects on the perception of mixed emotions in major and minor seventh chords. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Advance online publication. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/aca0000705 [PDF]

Van Hedger, S.C., Halpern, A.R., Vollweiler, D.J., Smith, E.E., & Pfordresher, P.Q. (2024). Is Hey Jude in the right key: Cognitive components of absolute pitch memory. Memory & Cognition, Advance Online Publication. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-024-01530-x [PDF]

Mathiesen, S.L., Van Hedger, S.C., Irsik, V.C., Bain, M.M., Johnsrude, I.S., & Herrmann, B. (2024). Exploring age differences in absorption and enjoyment during story listening. Psychology International, 6, 667-684. https://doi.org/10.3390/psycholint6020041 [PDF]

Sweet, S., Van Hedger, S.C., & Batterink, L.J. (2024). Of words and whistles: Statistical learning operates similarly for identical sounds perceived as speech and non-speech. Cognition, 242, 105649. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105649 [PDF]

Hull, K., Van Hedger, K., & Van Hedger, S.C. (2024). Absorption relates to individual differences in visual face pareidolia. Current Psychology, 43, 4458-4474. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04670-6 [PDF]

2023

Van Hedger, S.C., Bongiovanni, N., & Khudhair, H. (2023). Some like it sharp: Song familiarity influences musical preference for absolute tuning. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000636 [PDF]

Van Hedger, S. C., & Bongiovanni, N. (2023). Widespread but limited in context: Absolute tuning judgments are disrupted by relative pitch cues. Music & Science, 6, https://doi.org/10.1177/20592043231208626 [PDF]

Schertz, K.E., Kotabe, H.P., Meidenbauer, K.L., Layden, E.A., Zhen, J., Bowman, J.E., Lakhtakia, T., Lyu, M., Paraschos, O.A., Janey, E.A., Samtani, A.L., Stier, A.J., Gehrke, K., Van Hedger, S.C., Vohs, K.D., & Berman, M.G. (2023). Nature's path to thinking about others and the surrounding environment. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 89, 102046. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.102046 [PDF]

Van Hedger, S.C., Bongiovanni, N., Heald, S.L.M., & Nusbaum, H.C. (2023). Absolute pitch judgments of familiar melodies generalize across timbre and octave. Memory & Cognition. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-023-01429-z [PDF]

Bongiovanni, N., Heald, S.L.M, Nusbaum, H.C., & Van Hedger, S.C. (2023). Generalizing across tonal context, timbre, and octave in rapid absolute pitch training. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 85, 525-542. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-023-02653-0 [PDF]

Alexander, E., Van Hedger, S.C., & Batterink, L.J. (2023). Learning words without trying: Daily second language podcasts support word-form learning in adults. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 30, 751-762. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-022-02190-1 [PDF]

2022

Schertz, K.E., Bowman, J.E., Kotabe, H.P., Layden, E.A., Zhen, J., Lakhtakia, T., Lyu, M., Paraschos, O.A., Van Hedger, S.C., Rim, N.K., Vohs, K.D., & Berman, M.G. (2022). Environmental influences on affect and cognition: A study of natural and commercial semi-public spaces. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 101852. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101852 [PDF]

Brancato, G., Van Hedger, K., Berman, M.G., & Van Hedger, S.C. (2022). Simulated nature walks improve psychological well-being along a natural to urban continuum. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 101779. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101779 [PDF]

Dumas, T.M., Ellis, W.E., Van Hedger, S.C., Litt, D.M., & MacDonald, M. (2022). Lockdown, bottoms up? Changes in adolescent substance use across the COVID-19 pandemic. Addictive Behaviours, 131, 107326. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2022.107326 [PDF]

Van Hedger, S.C., Johnsrude, I.S., & Batterink, L.J. (2022). Musical instrument familiarity affects statistical learning of tone sequences. Cognition, 218, 104949. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104949 [PDF]

Heald, S.L.M., Van Hedger, S.C., Veillette, J., Reis, K., Snyder, J.S., & Nusbaum, H.C. (2022). Going beyond rote auditory learning: Neural patterns of generalized auditory learning. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 34, 425–444. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01805 [PDF]

Van Hedger, S.C., & Johnsrude, I.S. (2022). Speech perception under adverse listening conditions. In A. Popper, A. Coffin (Eds.), Springer Handbook of Auditory Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81542-4_6 [PDF]

2021

Reis, K.S., Heald, S.L.M., Veillette, J.P., Van Hedger, S.C., & Nusbaum, H.C. (2021). Individual differences in human frequency-following response predict pitch labeling ability. Scientific Reports, 11, 14290. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-93312-7 [PDF]

2020

Van Hedger, S.C., Veillette, J., Heald, S.L.M., & Nusbaum, H.C. (2020). Revisiting continuous versus discrete models of human behavior: The case of absolute pitch. PLOS One, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244308 [PDF]

Uddin, S., Reis, K., Van Hedger, S.C., Heald, S.L.M., & Nusbaum, H.C. (2020). Cortical mechanisms of talker normalization in fluent sentences. Brain & Language, 201, 104722. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2019.104722 [PDF]

2019

Van Hedger, S.C., Heald, S.L.M., & Nusbaum, H.C. (2019). Absolute pitch can be learned by some adults. PLOS One, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223047 [PDF]

Van Hedger, S.C., Nusbaum, H.C., Heald, S.L.M., Huang, A., Kotabe, H., & Berman, M.G. (2019). The aesthetic preference for nature sounds depends on sound object recognition. Cognitive Science, 43, e12734. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12734 [PDF]

Stenfors, C., Van Hedger, S.C. ... Berman, M.G. (2019). Positive effects of nature on cognitive performance across multiple experiments: Test order but not affect modulates the cognitive effects. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01413 Frontiers in Psychology, 10:1413.. [PDF]

Van Hedger, S.C., Nusbaum, H.C., Clohisy, L., Jaeggi, S.M., Buschkuehl, M., & Berman, M.G. (2019). Of cricket chirps and car horns: The effect of nature sounds on cognitive performance. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 26, 522-530. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-018-1539-1 [PDF]

Zhen, A., Van Hedger, S.C., Heald, S.L.M., Goldin-Meadow, S., & Tian, X. (2019). Manual directional gestures facilitate cross-modal perceptual learning. Cognition, 187, 179-187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.03.004 [PDF]

2018

Van Hedger, S.C., & Nusbaum, H.C. (2018). Individual differences in absolute pitch performance: Contributions of working memory, musical expertise, and tonal language background. Acta Psychologica, 191, 251-260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2018.10.007 [PDF]

Van Hedger, S.C., Heald, S.L.M., Uddin, S., & Nusbaum, H.C. (2018). A note by any other name: Intonation context rapidly changes absolute note judgments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 44, 1268-1282. https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000536 [PDF]

Van Hedger, S.C., & Nusbaum, H.C. (2018). Absolute pitch. In J. Vonk, T. K. Shackelford (eds.), Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham [PDF]

Nusbaum, H.C., Uddin, S., Van Hedger, S.C., & Heald, S.L.M. (2018). Consolidating skill learning through sleep. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 20, 174-182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2018.01.013 [PDF]

Uddin, S., Heald, S.L.M., Van Hedger, S.C., & Nusbaum, H.C. (2018). Hearing sounds as words: Neural responses to environmental sounds in the context of fluent speech. Brain & Language, 179, 51-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2018.02.004 [PDF]

Uddin, S., Heald, S.L.M., Van Hedger, S.C., Klos, S., & Nusbaum, H.C. (2018). Understanding environmental sounds in sentence context. Cognition, 72, 134-143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2017.12.009 [PDF]

Van Hedger, S.C., Heald, S.L.M., & Nusbaum, H.C. (2018). Long-term pitch memory for music recordings is related to auditory working memory precision. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 71, 879-891. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2017.1307427 [PDF]

2017

Van Hedger, S.C., Heald, S.L.M., Huang, A., Rutstein, B., & Nusbaum, H.C. (2017). Telling in-tune from out-of-tune: Widespread evidence for implicit absolute intonation. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 24, 481-488. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-016-1099-1 [PDF]

Heald, S.L.M., Van Hedger, S.C., & Nusbaum, H.C. (2017). Understanding sound: Auditory skill acquisition. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 67, 53-93. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.plm.2017.03.003 [PDF]

Heald, S.L.M.⁺, Van Hedger, S.C.⁺, & Nusbaum, H.C. (2017). Perceptual plasticity for auditory object recognition. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00781 [PDF]

2016

Van Hedger, S.C., Heald, S.L.M., & Nusbaum, H.C. (2016). What the [bleep?]: Enhanced absolute pitch memory for a 1000 Hz sine tone. Cognition, 154, 139-150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2016.06.001 [PDF]

2015

Van Hedger, S.C., Heald, S.L.M., & Nusbaum, H.C. (2015). The effects of acoustic variability on absolute pitch categorization: Evidence for contextual tuning. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 138, 436-446. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4922952 [PDF]

Van Hedger, S.C., Heald, S.L.M., Koch, R., & Nusbaum, H.C. (2015). Auditory working memory predicts individual differences in absolute pitch learning. Cognition, 140, 95-110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2015.03.012 [PDF]

Van Hedger, S.C., Palmer, C., Hogstrom, A., & Nusbaum, H.C. (2015). Sleep consolidation of musical competence. Music Perception, 33(2), 163-178. https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2015.33.2.163 [PDF]

2014

Heald, S.L.M., Van Hedger, S.C., & Nusbaum, H.C. (2014). Auditory category knowledge in experts and novices. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 8, 260. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2014.00260 [PDF]

2013

Hedger, S.C., Nusbaum, H.C., Lescop, O., Wallisch, P., & Hoeckner, B. (2013). Music can elicit a visual motion aftereffect. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 75, 1039-1047. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-013-0443-z [PDF]

Hedger, S.C., Heald, S.L.M., & Nusbaum, H.C. (2013). Absolute pitch may not be so absolute. Psychological Science, 24, 1496-1502. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612473310 [PDF]

Hedger, S.C., Nusbaum, H.C., & Hoeckner, B. (2013). Conveying movement in music and prosody. PLOS One, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0076744 [PDF]

⁺ Co-First Authors
Electronic versions of papers are provided as a professional courtesy to ensure timely dissemination of academic work for individual, noncommercial purposes. Copyright and all rights therein resides with the respective copyright holders, as stated within each paper. These files may not be reposted without permission.

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